Valve construction facilitating removal of parts



J- S. KESSLER Dec. 6, 1966 VALVE CONSTRUCTION FACILITALING REMOVAL OFPARTS Original Filed Oct. 23, 1959 Fuel. 3

IN M TOR. JOSEPH S. SSLER ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,290,003 VALVECONSTRUCTION FACILITATING REMOVAL OF PARTS Joseph S. 'Kessler, Kenosha,Wis., assignor to G & H Products Corporation, Keuosha, Wis., acorporation of Wisconsin Continuation of application Ser. No. 848,402,Oct. 23, 1959. This application Oct. 29, 1962, Ser. No. 233,967 1 Claim.(Cl. 251-318) This invention relates to valves and particularly toremote controlled'valves designed for flow control of dairy and otherfood products.

This is a continuation of my prior filed co-pending application, SerialNo. 848,402, filed October 23, 1959, and since abandoned.

This invention in particular concerns valves which call for frequentinspection and cleaning. Such valves are most often found in the dairyand other food industries in which inspection, washing or sterilizationof the various machine parts, as valves, is required at daily or shorterintervals. One of the important features of valves used in theseindustries is the easy and quick accessability of the parts coming incontact with the product. Another desirable feature is the ability toquickly remove these parts for their inspection and washing orsterilization. The importance of these features is appreciated if it isrealized that these high, almost clinical, sanitary standards areimposed upon a production industry where stoppage of production forinspection, washing and sterilization constitutes very expensive downtime. Prior to this invention it was necessary to at least partiallydisassemble the power actuator of the valves to provide sufficientaccess to the various valve parts to permit the required inspection andcleaning.

It is the object of this invention, therefore, to provide a valve whichcan be quickly and easily disassembled for inspection, cleaning andrepair as necessary.

Another object of this invention is to provide a power actuated valvewhich can be disassembled for inspection without disassembly of thepower actuating mechanism itself.

This object is attained by a valve comprising a valve housing having aninlet and an outlet and a valve seat in the housing adapted forcooperation with a valve member to control flow between the inlet andoutlet. The valve further includes a cage member having a base and aplurality of upstanding legs removably mounted on the housing and avalve actuator removably mounted on the cage member. The valve member inthe housing is operatively connected to the actuator by a two-piece stemcomprising two sections joined end-to-end by quick-disconnect means. Oneof said stem sections is slidably mounted in the base of the cage andextends through the base into the valve housing. The joint between thestem sections is accessible from outside the valve housing between theupstanding legs of the cage member. The quick-disconnect means aresecured to the upper stem section and engage a groove in the lower stemsection so as to permit the lower stern section to readily drop out fromthe valve assembly upon actuation of the quick-disconnect means. Thus,the valve can be disassembled for inspection by simply removing theclamps or other fastening means holding the valve housing and actuatorto the cage member and disconnecting the two stem sections by reachingbetween the legs of the cage member. This permits complete removal ofthe lower stem section for inspection and cleaning of the O-ring seal onthe stem and other areas wherein dirt is likely to accumulate withoutdisassembling the actuator as formerly was the case.

Other objects and advantages will be pointed out in, or be apparent fromthe specification and claim, as will "ice obvious modifications of thesingle embodiment shown in the drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional view taken through a valve embodying myinvention;

FIG. 2 is a horizontal sectional view taken along line 22 of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a horizontal sectional view taken along line 3-3 of FIG. 1.

Referring now to the drawings in detail, FIG. 1 shows a remotecontrolled valve operated by a pneumatic actuator. It should beunderstood, however, that the irnproved valve structure of my inventioncould be used with other types of actuators such as a solenoid forexample.

The valve includes a housing 10 having ports 12 and 14 adapted forconnection to fluid lines through which flow is to be controlled. A seat16 is formed in the housing and adapted for engagement by a valve member18 which extends into the housing through an inspection opening 19.Valve 18 is mounted at the end of a twopiece stem 20 having .an uppersection 22 and a lower section 24 removably connected by a joint 25.Valve member 18 is actuated between open and closed positions by apneumatic actuator designated generally by the reference numeral 26. Thelower section 24 of stem 20 is slidably mounted in a cage or yoke member28 which itself is removably mounted at inspection opening 19 of valvehousing 10 by a clamp 27. Cage 28 has a base 63 and upstanding legs 64with stem section 24 sealed in base 63 of the cage by an O-ring 29 toprevent leakage from inside housing 10. In assembled position base 63 ofcage 28 serves as part of the housing wall closing inspection opening19. The upper section 22 of the stem is slidably mounted in a basemember 30 of the pneumatic actuator which, in turn, is removably mountedon the upper end of cage 28 by a clamp 31, as shown.

Pneumatic actuator 26 is of conventional design and includes a sealedbonnet 32 removably mounted on base 30 by a clamp 33. A piston 34 isslidably mounted in the bonnet and fastened to the upper end ofstemsection 22 by a nut 36. The space inside the bonnet above the pistonis sealed by an O-ring 38 on the periphery of piston 34 and an O-ring 40on the stem. Thus,-it is seen that when air pressure is applied to thetop of piston 34 through a fitting 42, the piston will be forceddownwardly against the bias of a return spring 44 causing valve member18 to seat on seat 16 and thereby shut olf fluid flow through the valve.The downward movement of piston 34 is limited by a stop member 46mounted on base 30 and the return movement of the piston under the biasof spring 44 is limited by a pair of interlocking sleeves 48 and 50, asshown.

Clamps 27, 31 and 3-3 and joint 25 may be of any suitable designpermitting ready removal and reconnection of the parts. As shown indetail in FIG. 3, clamp 27 includes a pair of semi-circular channelmembers 52 and 54 pivotally connected at one end by a link 56 andreleasa'bly connected at the other end by a bolt and wingnut assembly 58pivotally connected to member 54 and adapted to engage and tightenagainst member 52 to securely connect the parts. Similarly, joint 25between stem sections 22 and 24 may be of any suitable design such asthat shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. The joint includes a cylindrical collar 60welded or otherwise fastened to the end of stem section 22 and adaptedfor telescopic engagement with the end portion '61 of stem section 24.To look the two parts together a wire clamp pin 62 is inserted betweenlegs 64 of cage member 28 for engagement in a groove 66 in end portion61 as clearly shown in FIG. 2. To make the connection, end portion 61 isinserted in the collar with groove 66 positioned in alignment with apair of oppositely facing circumferential openings 68 in the wall ofcollar 60 through which the legs 3 of pin 62 clamp to grip end portion61 by engagement with groove 66. In this arrangement the walls of groove66 serve as stop means when engaged with the legs of pin 62 and preventrelative longitudinal movement of one stem section in respect to theother.

It should be apparent to those skilled in the art that an essentialfeature of the quick-disconnect means described above is that lower stemsection 24 is so engaged as to permit it to freely drop out from base 63of the valve assembly upon disengagement of the quick-disconnect means.For this reason stem section 24 is provided with a groove 66, which ofcourse will not interfere in removing the stern section from the base,and stem section 22 has attached to it cylindrical collar 60.

Thus, it is seen that when it is desired to disassemble the valve forinspection of its parts clamps 27 and 31 are removed and stem sections22 and 24 are disconnected by removing pin 62. This permits removal ofstem section 24 for inspection of O-ring 29 and other areas where wearand dirt accumulation are likely to occur. The advantage of thisconstruction will be appreciated when it is remembered that in priorconstructions utilizing one-piece stems it was necessary to removebonnet 32 and piston 34 before the stem could be sufiiciently exposed topermit a complete inspection thereof. Although the removal of the clamp31 is not necessary for the removal of the valve member and its stemsection from the cage, the clamp 31 facilitates thorough cleaning ofthose cage sections which do come in contact with the products conveyedthrough the valve. In many cases such cleaning has to be performed at alocation other than where the valve is installed, and for this reason Ifind it very practical to connect the cage member to the base 30 by theillustrated clamp 31 and thereby render all parts which come in contactwith the products removable from the installation place of the valveassembly.

Although but one embodiment of the present invention has beenillustrated and described, it will be apparent to those skilled in theart that various changes and modifications may be made therein withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention or from the scope of theappended claim.

What I claim is:

A valve comprising, a valve body having an inlet and an outlet, a valveseat in said housing, a valve member movable within said housing andadapted for cooperation with said valve seat to control flow betweensaid inlet and said outlet, a cage member removably mounted on s aidhousing and having a base portion and a plurality of upstanding legs, avalve actuator removably mounted on said cage member, a two-piece sterncomprising first and second stem sections joined end-to-end, saidtwo-piece stem operatively connecting said actuator and said valvemember with the first section of said two-piece stem slidably mounted insaid base and extending through said base into said valve housing, saidsecond stem section operatively connected to said actuator, said firststem section having a groove in the portion extending through'said baseand sealing means contained in said groove to provide a seal betweensaid first stem section and said base, and connector means for said tWVOPiCCe stem adapted for readily connecting and disconnecting said sternsections, said connector means including a collar fastened to the end ofsaid second stem section and adapted for telescopic engagement with theend of the said first stem section, said connector means furtherincluding a locking member mounted in said collar and a second groove insaid first stem section, said locking member adapted for removableengagement with said second groove in said first stem section to readilydisconnect said stem sections upon actuation of said locking member andto permit slida'ble removal from said base of said first stem sectionand sealing means, said cage member removably mounted on said housingand said valve actuator removably mounted on said cage member bytwo-piece clamping members pivotally connected together at one end andreleasably connected at the other end.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 997,038 7/1911Brumrner 251- X 2,405,476 8/1946 Weatherhead 251-86 X 2,701,119 2/1955Smith 251-320 FOREIGN PATENTS 42,094 1907 Switzerland.

WILLIAM F. ODEA, Primary Examiner. ISADOR WEIL, Examiner. R. GERARD,Assistant Examiner.

